Filed my First Request for Payment for Unemployment

This morning I filed my first request for unemployment. Although most have reminded me that it is a benefit and it is insurance for unemployment, I still feel bad about applying for it. With the economy the way it is and the discussions with others before me who have been laid off, I realize that it is OK to accept this help.

For me, it was a question of deserve. By all measures, I should not be unemployed. I am highly skilled, a college graduate, more job experience than most people and valued as an employee during my performance reviews. So, why am I unemployed?

I was told that I am an expensive asset to my company and that my job would be moved overseas. I am not bitter about it. For two years, I had listened to the rumors of lay offs and reduction in force (RIFs). For two years, I would gain access using my ID badge and listen for the beep and look for a green light. For two years, I had to find the strength to go to a job only to see fellow employees collapsing from heart attacks, anxiety or just plain fatigue.

I am not an expensive asset to the company. To them, I am an expendable resource. I have been sucked dry of my intellect and strength. Why? The answer is simple. I made money for the stockholders and for the upper executives who get massive bonuses.

However, I can tell you this. They may have taken my job, but they cannot take away my diginity and worth as a human being and as a Christian. I make a difference to other people and I love each dearly. I had seen friends laid off before me. It did not affect how I felt for them or continue to feel for them. Each remains special in my heart.

So, I say this to all. You are all loved and you make a difference in people's lives. It is not the money you generate or how much you produce that makes you special. By your presence here and now, you are special. God created you for more than making wealth for yourself and others. Look at Genesis 1. Man was created last. We are His crowning achievement.

In one of my favorite plays by William Shakespeare, "Hamlet", the main character and namesake to the play, Hamlet, says this of man.

What piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

He says it with contempt. I say it with humility and awe. I was created by His hand and I am an adopted child of God. Saved from my sin and redeemed to live life anew.